Corn harvester



N. VARKER. CORN HARVESTER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. I'9| 1919.

Paten-ted Jan. 31 1922.

LIL" N. VARKER.

CORN HARVESTER.

APPLICATION FILED Auaqs. |919.

Patented Jan. 3], 1922'.

5 'SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Slm/umm N. VARKER.

CORN HARVESTER. APPLICATION FILED AUG.I9, 1919.

1,464,81 3. Patented Jan. 31, 1922.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

m R I N. VAHKER. CORN HARVESTER.v APPLICATION FILED AUG|I9| 191.9-

i 1,404,813. Patented Jan. 31, 1922.

N. VARKER.

CORN HARVESTER.

APPLICATION FILED AuG.I9. I9I9.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

narran srarss Nnw'roiv vnnnnn, or oUBa,wrscoNs1-N.`

.conn HARVESTER.

iaioaeis.

VSpecification of Letters Patent. Pgttmtd Jan; 31, 1922 appneatinv siedaugust 19, 1919. serial 1ro. 318,545.

To all who/ni it may cmmc'm.'k

Beit known that I, NEWTON venirmi, a citizen ci the United States,residing at Cuba, in the county of Grant, State of liscousin, haveinvented a new and useful Corn Harvester; and I do hereby'declare the:ich lowing to be a Jfull, clear, and exact descrip tion or theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to corn harvesters and has for its object toprovide a machine of this type wherein the machine will straddle a rowof corn, and as the machine moves forwardly, endless chains havingfingers, will straighten upwardly the stalks that may be inclined, andas the machine further moves forwardly, the stalk will pass between'means which will pull the corn in its husk from the stalk,` lsaid cornand husk being deposited by the pulling-mechanism on a rearwardlyextending conveyor, said conveyor depositing the corn on a secondconveyor. rlhe second conveyor extends out wardly from the machine, at aright angle thereto and has its upper `end disposed spaced from theground so that the corn in their husks may be deposited in a wagondriven beside the corn harvester and under said end or the conveyor.

A further object is to provide a mechanismA for breaking the ears ofcorn from the stalk comprising a vertically disposed and resilientlysupported breaker apron and an endless chain belt having a series or'rollers, said rollers being adapted to eneage and cooperate with theresiliently supported apron, between which rollers and the apron the,corn stalk passes so thatas the roller passes upwardly the ear of cornwill be broken from the stalk and deposited in a conveyor. Also tovprovide eccentric means, whereby the conveyor will be oscillated sothat thefears of corn will gradually move rearwardly to the right angleconf veyor.

A further object is to provide near the forward end or the machine alever, said lever having a link connection kwith the tongue ofthemachine whereby the machine may be inclinedat different angles.l

A further object is to yprovide means whereby the mechanism of themachine will be operated by a sprocket at one of the wheels of themachine, also to provide means whereby the movement of the mechanismmaybe dispensed with when the machine is being moved from place toplace.

Viith the above and otherfobjects in view the `invention resides in thecombination and arrangement f or parts as hereinafter set iorth, shown.in the drawings, described and claimed, it being understood thatchanges in the precise embodiment or the invention Vmay be made withinthe scope of what is claimed. y y i in. the drawings Figure lis a sideelevation or the machine.

Figure 2 is a plan view or the machine showing the same straddling a rowof corn. Figure 3 is a rear view or' the machine.

Figures is a transverse sectional view through the machine taken on lineAie-4 or figurc 2. Y y

Figure 5 is a "sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FigureQ.

igure 6 is a perspective view or the rightk angle conveyorsupportshowing its resili ent supporting means.

Figure 7 is afdetail perspective view oil the shaker conveyor and itsguide.

Figure 8 is a detail view of the endless holding apron. n

Figure 9 is a detail rview of the clutch mechanism for kcontrolling thepower vi'rom the wheel to the various mechanisms.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral l designates the frame and 2 atractor wheel journalled therein. The inner iside of the iframe isconnected to casings 3 and 4, said casing being connected together bytransverse members 5. The forward ends 6 of the casings 3 and t havejournalled in bearings thereon sprockets and 8, said sprockets beingcarried by vertically disposed shafts 9 and l() and around saidsprockets 7 `and 8 endless chains pass, said chains being provvided withfingers l1 adapted to engage4 the stalks ot corn thereby straightening,any

stalks that may be inclined so that said'stalks will pass through themachine in substane 1 tially a vertical position. Power istransmittedtothe sprockets for moving the endless chains having the fingers 11thereon so that their adjacent sideswill move inthe same directionthrough longitudinally disposed shafts 312, said shafts having securedVthereon to the forward endsthereot' bevel gears 13, which bevel gearsmesh with bevel gears 14 carried by the upper end of 6 0 viding theelongated bearing 21a the vertical shafts v9 and 10. It will be seenthat bevel gea-rs 13 are disposed on opposite sides of the bevel gears14, t-hereby causing the sprockets 8 to revolve in the direction of thearrows 15 so that the sprocket chains t will move in the same direction,thatis verse members l A cured to a shaft 19, which shaft'is rotatablymounted in bearings of the casing 3. The other Shaft 12 is providedwithsprockets. 2O and around said sprockets 20 and sprockets 21 rotatablymounted in bearings ofpivoted arms 22 is flexible apron 23,v said apronbeing adapted to co-operate with transversely disposed rollers 24carried by the endless chains 17 so that as the roller 241passesupwardly and a stalk is between said roller and the apron, said rollerwill come in contact with an ear of corn and dislodge the same bybreaking-the ear from the stalk.

However, as the rollers 24 ride over the edgeV 25 of the conveyorcasingV 26, said roller is forced inwardly into close engagement withthe stalk, so thatit will roll up f'said stalk until is engages the earof corn.

During this inward movement of the roller 24, thelower end of the apron23 is allowed to pivot outwardly at its lower end through the medium ofthe pivoted arm 22, which arm is rigidly secured-to a shaft 27, saidshaft being rotatably mounted in a bearing of the casing 4 and isprovided with angular arm 28, to the end-of which a coil vspring' 29 issecured. The other end of the coil spring being connected to a pivotedarm 30 as at 31, said arm 30 being limited in its pivotal movement by astop lug 32, the upper end of the pivoted armf30 being adapted to beengagedby the arm 28 so that said arm may be limited in its movement andconsequently limiting the inward movement v of the'lower end of theapron 23. v

1t willbe seen that no matter how thick the stalk may be, nor how thickthe ears may be that the endless apron 23 will move outwardly at itslowervend to accommodate itself to the thickness of the stalk or ear. Byreferringto Figure 8, it will also be seen that by providing theelongated bearing 21a i in the lower end of the arm 22, that the innerside of the apron willA be allowed to move inwardly so that it canconform to the contour of the side of the stalk without frictionallybinding against the same. By prothe sprocket wheels 21 will be allowedto move upwardly so that` it will swing' outwardly on various arcsaccording` to contour of the sides of the stalk or the ear.

, sprockets,

A shaft 42,

shaker conveyor and outwardly .at

After the roller 24 has broken the ear from the stalk, the ear fallsinto a shaking conveyor 33, which is guided in its longitudinal movementin the casing 26, said casing being provided with a vertically disposedshield 34 which prevents the ear of corn from passing over the top ofthe conveyor and assures the dropping of the corn onto the conveyor 33.The conveyor 33 has connected to the forward end thereof a link 34a,said link extending forwardly and upwardly and is secured as at 36 to arockable shaft 37, said shaft 37 being mounted in bearings 38 ofthecasing 6.` The outer end of the shaft .37 is provided with offsetears 38271 between whichy ears an arm 39- of an eccentric band 40, isconnected. Eccentric band 40 has rotatably mounted therein an eccentric.41, which eccentric is secured on a rotatable shaft 42, said shaftbeing rotatably mounted in bearings in the frame casing 3.

The corn harvester fframe is provided with a wheel 2d at the oppositeside to the wheel 2, however, power is transmitted from the wheelr2through the sprocket 43 and sprocket chain 44. Sprocket chain 44 in turnpassing` over a sprocket 45 carried by a transversely disposed shaft 46.The outer end of the shaft 46 has loosely mounted thereon a. bevel gear47, however, bevel gear 47 is caused to the spline clutch 48 is throwninto operation by means of the controlling lever 48, llVhen the clutch48 isthrown in, bevel gear 47 meshes with a bevel gear 49 secured on therotating said bevel gear 49 and consequently rotating shaft 42 .whichwill cause the eccentric to operate the shaker conveyor, so that theears of corn `will be worked rearwardly to the outlet end 50 ofthecasing 25. Shafts 12 are rotated from the shaft 42 through chain andsprocket connections 51V and 52. Bymeans ofthis chain and sprocketconnection it will be seen that the inner wall ofthe apron 23 will movedownwardly and that the inner wall or portions of the sprocket chain v17will move upwardlyrthereby causing' a pull upwardly underthe ear 0f cornbythe roller, at the same time that a downward pull is being impartedtothe stalk. This downward pulling on the. stalk by the apron willprevent the uprooting ofthe stalk as the roller is bearing the ear fromthe same, thereby leaving the stalk intact inV the ground.

Shaft 42 at'its rear end passes through an inclined conveyor 53, whichconveyor is disposed under the discharge Vend 50 of the 33 and extendsupwardly tion of movement of theV machine. Shaft 42 extends through thewalls of the conveyor 53 and is provided with a sprocket 54a; saidsprocket 54 has a sprocket cha-in extending rotate with the shaft whenright angle to the direcaround it and around the sprocket 55, mounted ona drive shaft 56 at the lower end of thegconveyorfsaid sprockets andchain forming means whereby the shaft 56 will berotated andconsequentlythe conveyor 53,4 so that as `the ears are deposited on theconveyor they will beconveyedgupwardlyl considerable springing actionyon the con-y ;veyor 5B, and to `take the'strain of this action thesupporting bracket 54 for the conveyor 53 is providedwith a coil Vspringsupport'V ported frame, said frame being provided atV 55, the lowerendotvwhichspring is connected to a U-shaped link ^5Ga,said U-shapedlink being in turnconnected to the conveyorv frame. lt will be seenthatas the harvester moves over f the groundthat the'strain on the conveyor53 willbe taken up by the springrf. Atongue 5'1"` is ,pivoted to theforward end oi" the machine as at158, and byineans `ot this pivotalconnection .of thev tongue, the casings r3 and/1L may be moved nearer.to theground or further from `the ground as desired for extremelylowcorn `or coi-n that becomes inclined from wind or weather conditions`Tol accomplishthis upward and downward movement oii' the forward end oitthe link being pivoted as at 61 to an arm ,62 of lever 63, Asaidleverbeing pivoted to the frame 1"as`at"64:. It will be seen that by movingthe lever 63 in one direction or the other that the pivotallpoint 58will be moved upwardly or 'downwardly for the reason that the weight ison the draft animal through the medium of the tongue therefore the'forward end oi the tongue will not move and consequently the pivotalpoint 58 willy move upwardly or downwardly according to the direction ofmovement of the lever 63.

Lever 63 is maintained in position to which it has been moved by meansot the dog and rack a whichinterengage, said dog being controlled by ahand grip 65.

Corn ears that may bey causedto break and drop from the'stalks as thesame are being straightened `to a substantially verti# cal position bythe lingers 11, will fallinto the compartments 3a and da of the forwardends of the casiiigs 8, and 4, thereby pre venting vthe dropping of thesaine on 'the ground and consequent loss of this easily broken corn. c yThe corn stalks pass between the'casings.

3 and 4L, thence backwardly under the Jfront transverse meinber, inwhich position the quickly movin roller 24 comes around engaging onesite oflthe stalk forcing said` stalk against the resilientl ivotedlower ends of the `casi'ngs S'and,` al link 59v is `pivoted to thetongue as at 60 the other` endo the apron, which apron is moving in theoppositetdirection to theroller Qlthere-V by holding Vthe stalk `andpreventingV the* roller `from uprooting the stalk when it y moves,upwardly intoA engagement with the ear of corn and bieakssaidear fromthe stalk. VThe ear having been broken rom the stalk drops into theshaker conveyer 33, it gradually moves rearwardly over said shakingconveyor andv is deposited on the its forward end with endless chainsbetween f` which the stalks pass and by which the stalks are movedto anupright position, a breaking .mechanism for breakingrthecorn ears treini the stalk disposed behind the straightening 'mecha-nism, said breakingmechanism comprising anendless belt apron vertically disposed,vertically disposed endless chains opbeen set forth what i *conveyor 53.Conveyor 53 elevates the; ears"` of corn and deposits the same into awagon Y which is driven along side the harvester posite the endless beltapron, said chains" being provided with rollers, ysaidapron and 'therollers carried by theychains being so disposed that the stalksfof cornwill pass there between, means whereby thel rollers'-v will moveinwardly againstothe stalk and roll upwardly thereon, the lower end ofthe `apron conveyor beingv tree to move outwardlyagainst tliezaction oraspring" thereby holding the sta-lkagainst being uprooted duringafbreaking operationov the roller, a conveyor passing throughl theendless chains andmeans whereby' power will be imparted 'from one `oi?the supporting ,wheels of the frame for operating the straighteningcha-ins, the breaking mechanism and the lonfl gitiidinal conveyor.

2. A corn harvester having at its forward end means `for straighteningupthe stalks as themachine advances, said means comiiov prisingcontinuously moving fingers on each side ot the rowviior engagingthestalks, a

mechanism located behind the straightening v means for breaking the earsfrom the stalks,

said mechanisms comprising spaced pairs of i Y vertically disposedendless belts, one of said pairs of belts being provided with stalk en`gaging and ear removing rollers, the other belt moving downwardly inengagement with the stalk, thereby preventing the uprooting of the stalkas the rollers break the ear from `the stalk, and means whereby thebroken earswill be conveyed from the machine. Y i

3. A corn harvester having atitstorward end' means for straightening upthe stalks the machine advances, saidmeans compris- Y ing continuouslymoving fingers on each side of the row of cornfor engaging the stalks, a

mechanism located behind the straightening means for breakingthe earsfrom the stalks, saidl mechanism,comprising spaced pairs of verticallydisposed` endless belts, one of said pairs of belts being provided withstalk engaging and ear removing rlollers, the othei` belt movingdownwardly inV engagement with the stalk, thereby preventing theuprooting of the same as the rollers breakthe `ears from the stalk,V pdownwardly moving p air of belts being` re thelower end of the silientlymounted against the action of a spring thereby preventing excessivepressure against the stalk and at the Sametime allowing the stalk to Vbegrasped between the rollers andthe downwardly moving pair ofy saidmechanism comprising spaced pairs of vertically `disposed endless belts,one of said pai-rs of belts being provided with stalk en-V gagingfandear removing rollers, the other belt moving downwardly in engagementwith i the stalk, thereby preventing the uprooting of thestalk ,as therollers break the ears from the, same, a conveyor passing longitudinallythrough the roller carrying beltsand-so disposed that asl the ears arebroken from the 'stalk the saine will drop `into the conveyor andmeans-whereby power from one of -the v` "wheels of the harvester may beutilized for `operating the straightening mechanism, the

breaking mechanism and the longitudinal f conveyor.

, 5. A wheel supported corn harvester having at its forward end vmeansfor straightening up tliestalk las the-machine advances', means attlieforwardend of the machine Vadjacentthe straighteningmeans forcollectingV the ears oi" corn that maybecoine dislodged from Athe stalksduring the straightening operation, a mechanism located' L behind thestraightening meanssfor breaking'the ears from the stalks, saidmechanism comprising spacedpairs'of vertically disposed endless belts,one of said pairs of'b'elts being provided with stalk engaging and earremoving roll= ers, means for moving thev rollers inwardly `as `theystarten their upward movement,

said rollers being adapted Vto'engage i'under Y an ear oflcornand'breakV thesame froml the stalk, the other beltl moi'fing downwardlyin engagement with the stalk, thereby preventing uprooting of the stalkasthe rollers break the'ea-rs from the same, a conveyork passinglongitudinallythrough the roller carrying belt and. so vdisposedthatra's the ears are" broken from the stalk thesame will Y drop intosaidv conveyor and means whereby powerffrom one of the supporting wheelso1 thehai'vester maybe utilized as. desired to `operate ,thestraightening ymechanism, the

breaking'inechanism andto impart shakingoperation to the longitudinalconveyor.

lln testimony `whereof I have signed' myf 4nameto this. "specificationin the presence of' two subscribing witnesses. f

" NEWTON vankiiii; f j

ll'litnesses: t l

S. SMALLEY, T. E; HENpiuoKs g

